February 03, 2012

Top Snowboarders Face Off in Travis Rice's Supernatural at Baldface, B.C. (Video)

By Samantha Cook

Starting today, 18 of the world’s top snowboarders will face off in the inaugural Red Bull Supernatural Contest, a competition unlike any before. Snowboarder Travis Rice, one of our 2012 Adventurers of the Year, has created his dream playground designed to determine the best snowboarder on the planet.

Located in the backcountry of Canada’s Baldface Lodge, the heli-access-only 2,200-vertical-foot “Scary Cherry” run has been enhanced with more than 80 man-made features that took Rice and his crew five months to build. The course is designed to test a wide range of skills such as navigation and the ability to ride natural terrain as well as overcome challenging man-made obstacles. The daylong competition will run sometime between today and February 8 to ensure the event takes place under the best possible weather conditions.

“Inspiration for the course design came from nature, straight up, and the crazy features that I’ve seen people ride,” said Rice. “Also, some inspiration came from what they are able to do with mountain biking courses, like building stuff through the trees. There’s no limit to what is possible with a little creativity and some will.”

Rice himself is known for his creative moves. In his film The Art of Flight, he and his friends performed breathtaking snowboard feats in previously uncharted terrain. Now with a course of his own design, Rice seeks to inspire competitors to show off their own ingenuity. His ultimate goal for the competition? “To crown the best, most well rounded snowboarder in the world.”

Life is an edge, and also the feelings, the stuff you deliberately pursue a lifetime not, you did not expect brilliant but will you indifferent calm unexpected.A student, walked along the way, there are a lot of passing, I like, like my muddle of feelings and memories, in the heart. This article touched me, and you also have to!

With the advent of technology and the rise of adventure filming, I find it incredible the lengths that people like Travis Rice go to in order to seek adventure, perfect their craft, and explore new terrain. I believe that films like "The Art of Flight" not only inspire young men and women who themselves snowboard (my little brother being one of his biggest fans), but also people outside the sport get a chance to see a beauty and adventure that they may not otherwise get to experience. Snowboarding is not only a rising career form, it is an instrument for sharing with the world a part of humanity - adventure.